Compound Sentences

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Compound Sentence:A compound sentence has two or more independent clauses. (Sentence Writing Strategy - University of Kansas)


Examples:
1) The students finished class, and they went to lunch.

2) Kevin did not want to hurt Kathy’s feelings, so he said nothing about her mistake.
3) I want to see my sister soon, for she has been in Switzerland for two years.

Comparing Compound Sentences to Simple Sentences with Compound Subjects and Compound Verbs.


Simple Sentence:
The men and women met at the station and went to dinner.
Compound Sentence:
The men met at the station, and the women went to dinner.

Simple Sentence:
The ducks and geese squawked and fluttered their wings.
Compound Sentence:
The ducks squawked, and the geese fluttered their wings.

Simple Sentence:
Harry and Joe ate ice cream and drank pop.
Compound Sentence:
Harry ate ice cream, and Joe drank pop.

Coordinating Conjunctions - A word that is used with a comma to join two independent clauses.

,For ,And ,Nor ,But ,Or ,Yet ,So

Examples:

  • Baseball is my favorite sport to watch, but football is my favorite sport to play.
  • The children ran all the way to school, yet they were late any way.
  • You will have to finish the project, or your group will get a failing grade.
  • Hanni was not at the game, nor was she at the party.
  • We did not see Mike at the movie, nor did we see him at the restaurant.


SEMICOLONS ( ; ) can also be used to join the two independent clauses of a compound sentence.

Examples:

  • Susan loves to swim; her brother likes to dive.
  • Jason was highly respected; he was always such a responsible person.
  • The meeting was over; it was already midnight.